


if all you got is your own two legs

by HuiLian



Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Run, Whump, Whumptober 2020, an unamed robot vilain, just go with it it's whumptober i don't have the mindset to think about actual villains, minimal editing we die like mne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-09
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,098
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26910730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuiLian/pseuds/HuiLian
Summary: In, out. In, out.Dick forces himself to maintain control over his breathing, despite his lungs’ protests. They have been running for hours, now. They can’t keep this up, even with all the training in the world. They’re still only human.He looks to his right to check on Tim, only to find his brother flushed from exhaustion. Dick is probably flushed too, but he forced the ache on his lungs and the burn on his legs away. Tim is here, and Dick can't afford to be exhausted.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Dick Grayson
Series: Whumptober 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947091
Comments: 16
Kudos: 78
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	if all you got is your own two legs

**Author's Note:**

> another installation on the whumptober train! title from hadestown!

In, out. In, out. 

Dick forces himself to maintain control over his breathing, despite his lungs’ protests. They have been running for _hours_ , now. They can’t keep this up, even with all the training in the world. They’re still only human.

He looks to his right to check on Tim, only to find his brother flushed from exhaustion. Dick is probably flushed too, but he forced the ache on his lungs and the burn on his legs away. Tim is here, and Dick can't afford to be exhausted. 

Tim is here, and they have been running for hours. 

They can't go much longer. The _thing_ chasing them pushes a hard pace, so much so, that even Dick, with his years of experience running across rooftops nightly, is out of breath. Something has to give, and, baring it stopping its chase, it will have to be either of them. 

He refuses to let it be Tim. 

Dick makes a choice. He pushes his pace faster, going into a full-on sprint, and grabs Tim's arm, forcing him to go at the same speed. Dick can hear Tim's gasp of protest, but he ignores it. They have to gain some distance so that Dick can explain to Tim. 

Dick forces them to go on that speed for a few minutes, until he hears Tim's breath go from the laboured, but still ordered breathing he was using for the past few hours to a chaotic, unpatterned one. Tim has reached his limit. They have to stop. 

This is where Dick tells Tim his plan. 

Dick takes a deep breath, forcing it to go into his lungs, and starts talking, uncaring of the burn it gives. "Tim, listen to me." 

He waits until his little brother gains enough control of his breathing to look up at him before continuing, "I'm going to be bait. I'll pull it away." A gasp on air. Dick wants to keep pushing air into his lungs, but he can't. He has to say this. 

"You get a place to hide. Call for backup." Another gasp. Damn it, they don't have the time for his lungs to take in enough air. Dick ignores the pain on his chest and continues, "Stay safe until backup comes."

"What…," Tim says, between gulping in air, "about you?" 

"I'll be fine," Dick lies. He's _not_ going to be fine, but what choice does he have? At least this way, Tim is going to be safe. 

“No,” Tim snaps out. “No… you’re not.” He breathes in and Dick can see his little brother forcing himself to speak, the way Dick just did a few moments earlier. It hurts him the way doing it himself doesn’t. “Don’t lie… to me, Dick.”

Dick grabs Tim’s shoulders. He knows his brother. Tim is going to _debate_ this with him, and they _don’t have the time_. “Just do it, Tim,” Dick pleads. “Go. Please.”

“No!”

“Please.” Dick pulls Tim into a quick, one-armed hug, careful not to crush him too much. Their lungs are still trying to replenish their air supply, after all. “Love you, little brother.”

“Dick,” Tim protests. “Dick, don’t do this.”

“Go the other way, if you can. Let it lose track of you.” Dick squeezes Tim’s shoulder once and says, “Have to go now.” 

Then, before Tim can say anything, Dick takes a deep, controlled breath, preparing himself to sprint away from their little hiding place. And not a moment too soon. He can hear the stomping footprints already. Time to go. 

Time to be bait so that Tim can get away. 

He knows _nothing_ of this thing’s capabilities, how durable it is, its weak spots, its limitations. They were just doing recon when this thing activated and started to chase them. They don’t have any files on it. They don’t have any information on it. 

And to make things worse, it seems to have a local signal disruptor. Their comms have been off ever since it activated. 

Dick hopes that the disruptor is just local. Because if it isn’t, then however far Dick can lead it away won’t matter, because Tim won’t be able to call for help anyway. 

No. Don’t think about it. Dick takes one last look at Tim, who is still gasping for breath, and dashes out. 

He wishes Wally is here. Wally would have been able to outrun this thing in a heartbeat.

Or Bart. Or Barry. Or anyone else, really. 

But they aren’t here. Dick is here, and he’s going to save his little brother. 

Dick makes as much noise as possible, letting his heel meets the ground hard enough to thump, a very different, and much more tiring, way of running than he had done earlier. He raises his hands and waves them, making himself as visible a target as possible. 

He has to get it away from Tim. 

Dick really doesn’t have enough air to shout, but he does it anyway. “Hey!” Dick shouts, pulling air he cannot afford to lose from his lungs. “Over here!”

Dick hopes the thing tracks them using sight and sound, because if it doesn’t, then he had just thrown away his breath control just like that. 

It turns to him, and _away_ from Tim. Thank god. Dick keeps shouting, “Hey! I’m here, you stupid idiot!” 

Pulls its attention to himself. Get it to forget Tim. 

What does it matter that his lungs are burning with lack of air? 

“Yeah, come here!” Dick even stops running and turns around to face the thing, letting it observe him. “You want to get me? Well then come here!”

Distantly, he hears a choked up sound, and immediately knows that it is Tim who made that sound. He sees the thing turning around, searching for what made that sound, and Dick throws all caution to the wind. 

He jumps, he screams, he stomps the ground, making as much noise as he can to cover Tim’s. “What are you looking for, you idiot?” he shouts again, feeling his throat goes raw with the effort. “I’m here!”

It works. It works, it works, it works. Dick sends a small prayer of gratitude to whoever is listening. It turns back to Dick and starts stomping towards him again. 

Dick runs. He runs and runs and runs, feeling his lungs burn and his heart clenches and his muscles scream. He feels his throat rebelling because of how dry it is and he feels his stomach threatening to upend its contents.

Dick ignores all of it. He keeps running, and he doesn’t stop, despite his body begging him to.

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos make my heart all bubbly inside!
> 
> check out my tumblr if you want! (huilian.tumblr.com)


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